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American Morning

President Bush Builds a House

Aired August 08, 2001 - 09:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Texas today, a vacationing President Bush is venturing off the ranch, bringing his hammer, and he's taking a page out of a predecessor's book today. Let's check on that.

Our White House correspondent Kelly Wallace is covering the event for us this morning -- Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Well, you could say the president is emphasizing the working part of his working vacation. Just a few moments from now, about a block from where I'm standing, as you mentioned, he'll pick up a hammer and some nails and help build a home for a single mother and her two teenage children. This a project of the group the Christian Housing Ministry Habitat for Humanity. And as you mentioned, the president following the lead of that group's perhaps most famous volunteer, that is former President Jimmy Carter.

Following that, the president will come over here to this home, which was built by Habitat for Humanity back in 1990, and speak to some people here in Waco. The president likely to use this event to push his controversial plan to allow religious groups to receive federal money to provide social services to the needy.

Habitat for Humanity already receives some money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The president would like to see the group receive more. His plan has already passed in the House. It's somewhat stalled in the Senate. And as you know, Leon, critics say it blurs the constitutional separation between church and state -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, Kelly, can you give us some more on what, on this image campaign right now that President Bush is on and how he's going to accomplish this by spending, as we read it, only 15 minutes here at this Habitat location.

WALLACE: Right. Well, we are going to see, this is really the first of a series of events this month. We're going to see the president in informal settings mixing with every day Americans, trying to hear their concerns and then talk about issues he cares about.

Now, aides, Leon, are saying this is not a shift in strategy. But political observers say Mr. Bush should be concerned because while polls show that most Americans find him very likable, a lot of Americans also don't necessarily think he agrees with the issues they care about. So we'll see the president talking about helping the low income afford homes, talking about education this month, talking about character values, again, talking about issues with wide appeal -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Kelly Wallace, thank you very much. We will see you later on this morning.

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